inthesticks

About 35 years ago I purchased 2 inexpensive Asian knock-offs of a Craftsman wood lathe. They were not very ridgid, vibrated alot and a little scary to use.It wasn't long before I lost the motors. I replaced the motors and converted one into a bowl lathe.

Last year I rebuilt A heavy Rockwell/Delta variable speed 40" center lathe and rather than have the knck-offs taking up space I decided to repurpose them again. I was not comfortable with the converted bowl lathe so I extended the pipe bed to be able to use an outboard support when needed, beefed up the welded baseand mounted the whole machine on a 3/4" aluminum plate. Loosen one bolt and the whole machine rotates to find most comfortable position given nature of work. Runs 12 speeds on 3/4 HP 3 speed motor. Very low vibration.

I decided to take the castings and pipe bed of the second lathe and build a mini lathe.The welded channel sub-bed makes the lathe very ridged with low vibration. 9 speeds on 3/4 HP 3 speed motor. 12" swing not usually found on mini lathe. I will install a belt guard and upgrade electrics when I find a push button 3 speed switch. If someone has a source for north american power I would love to here about it.